Planet Earth : Complete BBC Series (5 Disc Box Set) [2006] [DVD]

I have never in my life seen anything like this series. I had thought that the Blue Planet, also by the BBC, was the pinnacle of achievement of wildlife television. The deep sea episode had left me breathless, but that proved nothing compared to Planet Earth. The effort that went into this series is obvious. Only at the end of each show when we spend time with each of the crews do we really get a sense of what they had to do to bring such beauty before us. This is not self-serving "let's pat ourselves on the back" television. It only adds to the sense of wonder, and to the sense of how privileged we have been to see some of the rarest sights in nature. The camerawork is sensational. The killer whale rising out of the sea with the seal in its mouth, the diving hawks making their mid-air kill, the snow leopard bounding down sheer cliffs, the chandelier cave. All incredible. This is unlike most other "animal" tv shows, where the audience is patronised into listening to an ill-thought out anthropomorphic commentary which is little more than "ooohhh...isn't that cute" or "whoooah...isn't that dangerous". Attenborough is wonderful. He has the humility to understand that the show is not about him, and he is prepared to say nothing whilst our senses drink in "that shot" of Angel Falls or the intense colours of the Okavanga Delta. The behaviour of the Gobi desert camels left me speechless; you don't need some idiot telling you how amazing it is. I can recommend this serious without hesitation. This is public television at its best. It cannot be financially prudent to spend 40 days in the Gobi desert chasing Bactrian camels, but it takes real corporate bravery to say that natural beauty cannot be captured on the cheap. The camera techniques (remember the African dogs chase?) are priceless. You must watch this series. People at my office were discussing each episode for days afterward. Friends' children were having the same discussions - "oh my god - did you see that?" If 8 year old children and 60 year old lawyers have the same base sense of wonder, nobody will watch this and think, "it's just another documentary". This is nothing like you will have seen before. I thought I was a cynic, but this really has re-opened my eyes to the raw power of nature.

Of all the natural world style documentaries that have been done this is surely the best. Needless to say David Attenborough gives an excellent commentary, but it's the production values here that take the breath away. From the huge array of overhead views of all sorts of vista's from deserts to jungle to the minute and painstaking close up shots that pass in seconds but took months to shoot this simply oozes quality.

With so many other similar documentaries already done this needed something different and arresting to pull in the audiences and so we are presented with hour after hour of all manner of things most of us never even knew existed let alone have seen from creatures that can only be found in 2 of the worlds waterfalls to sandstorms hundreds of metres high charging across a desert . The programme is also unusual in that it rarely pauses for too long on any one subject, you are really getting as much as possible packed into every episode.

The whole planet gets a look in and by the end you want to go back and see it all again.

Well done to the BBC for such high production values in the DVD too. The picture is superb, no graininess, dark and light scenes are handled equally well and colour is vivid and yet still lifelike. Hi-def was made for this type of release.

Sound is also well mixed in subtle 5.1.

The extra look at how each episode was made is a nice bonus too.

If you feel you've probably seen it all before then think again as this really is a breath of fresh air. This is a great programme and is well worth owning.

Documentary: 5/5, Picture: 3-5/5, Extras: 4/5

The Documentary
Planet Earth takes a rather different approach to Sir David Attenborough's previous Life series: instead of taking a species or phylum, it explores a particular habitat. This is not so much a geological study of the Earth but rather a broad survey of the rarely seen or visited habitats and their inhabitants, with an emphasis on how they adapt to the forces of nature. At times it looks more like showing off spectacular scenery than a systematic study. Coverage is by no means exhaustive but what is presented is truly remarkable. Episode one takes you from the South to the North Pole, passing the various forest ecosystems and desserts in between and is a preview of later episodes.

If you have watched the Life series and the BBC's Blue Planet you will notice some familiarity in Planet Earth. There are recurrent themes on survival and adaptive behaviour. I am constantly reminded of and impressed by the resilience of life.

Memorable shots are too many to mention but polar bear cubs exploring the snowy slopes, the great white shark leaping out of water (with footage slowed down 40 times) and snow covered mountains come to mind. I particularly like the aerial views.

Picture: VC-1 1080p 16:9
The main feature IS "1080/24p", as indicated by my Pioneer BD player. The production for broadcast is mastered in 25p from various framerates (details on bbcresources.com); the PAL DVD is in 50i (equivalent to 25p) and each episode runs for 48 minutes (excluding the extras) compared to 50 minutes on Blu-ray. So the Blu-ray runtime is in keeping with a 25p to 24p slowdown. The 1080i v. 1080p feud has been blown out of all proportions. For the material shot on video the HD cameras used in the early 2000s were mostly 720p; note it says on the back "some footage was not captured in full HD". While a lot of scenes are spectacular there are occasional artefacts. People who find Blu-ray to be softer than HD broadcast have incorrect set-up somewhere in the video signal chain: it is not the fault of the Blu-ray.

The Narration and Sound Track (Dolby Digital 5.1)
The background narration is occasionally too soft. The script is very well written, full of interesting statistics and entirely appropriate without being verbose. The music when present adds to the serenity of the magnificent scenery or the drama of hunting scenes. Subtitles are in English only.

The Substituted Extras (1080/60i)
Regrettably this release does not have the original DVD extras: the 10 minute "Diaries" at the end of each episode and the 'Planet Earth - The Future' feature (2h56') and people felt let down. The "Dairies" are interesting and the message on the state of the planet is of course important and the BBC underestimated the viewer's sentiment. But the extras included here, Dessert Lions and Snow Leopards (the subject of DVD episode 2 "Diaries") from the BBC's Natural World in HD are interesting programmes in their own right and more amenable to repeated viewing. The biologist who tagged collars on the snow leopards died recently so that makes it even more valuable to watch. But it would be better to give us the original extras and have Natural World on a separate release.

Which version to get?
The US Discovery Channel version is truncated and has an American non-naturalist narrator so that is a non-starter. This UK version has the same encoding as the US BBC/Warner four-disc version (both region free) but has the extras on a fifth disc and hence the best value. If you cannot live without the original extras then borrow the DVD.

A must-have for every Blu-ray library
Just marvel at the contents: once you understand the technical issues you will realise that whatever technical limitations there are they are really of no great significance here.